Comedy double-act Trevor and Simon will probably always be regarded as a rather peculiar anomaly. Originally jobbing circuit comedians, they were spotted by the BBC and asked to perform a regular turn on children's Saturday morning show "Going Live". Strict instructions were issued to the effect that they should not make their act too rude, but otherwise not make any effort to tailor their work specifically to children. "Be yourselves, lads," seemed to be the mantra emerging from Shepherd's Bush.

As absurd as it sounds, that's how their fictional duo The Singing Corner, who parodied the twee excesses of the sixties folkies (not least Peter and Gordon, I'd have thought) crashed down into the nineties morning television schedules. What on Earth nineties schoolchildren got out of their versions of Donovan's "I Love My Shirt" and "We're Going to the Zoo" is a question which doesn't seem to have bothered very many people before or since - but absurdly, the whole venture worked. "I Love My Shirt" was quoted in playgrounds by children you suspect would otherwise never have heard it, repeated endlessly at the behest of keen viewers, and eventually Donovan himself was persuaded to release a novelty single with the pair.

Sadly, a redux version of "I Love My Shirt" was not forthcoming, which was surely what the public wanted. A new version of "Jennifer Juniper" was recorded instead, which wasn't as effective. Donovan's presence in the studio also shatters the impact of the piss-taking somewhat, given that Trevor and Simon played up the drippy hippy-ness of the tunes in a tremendously cartoonish, Austin Powers way. When placed next to Donovan's hushed vocals it seems too extreme, too laboured, and not subtle enough. It in fact highlights the strengths of the original song and makes it seem as if two gimps have broken into the studio, grabbed some master tapes, and made silly comments over the top of a Donovan recording for three minutes. It was a move that caused Rowland Rivron on "Jukebox Jury" to argue that they'd "bastardised" the song. If the three had taken "Shirt", a song so enjoyably ridiculous it's almost hard to understand how it existed in the first place, then a top ten hit would have been assured. This, on the other hand, was an attempt at vandalism on something which was never that absurd or risible to begin with.

All three artists are still going to greater or lesser extents, with Trevor and Simon still doing podcast work and occasional BBC broadcasts, and Donovan thrilling live audiences with his slightly fey form of folk. This single, however, is unlikely to feature high on the CVs of any of the individuals concerned. Maybe they genuinely were on drugs at the time...

Thanks for dropping by, Simon! You mean you didn't keep copies of your own record?

Coincidentally I was watching clips on YouTube recently of some of the early nineties Trevor and Simon material and chuckling to myself. If your wife happens to be Canadian and didn't arrive on these shores until the year 2000, it's bloody difficult to explain to her why you keep shuffling around the kitchen softly singing "Going to swing our pants, pants, pants/ with the elephants, phants, phants".

And have you heard Peter and Gordon's "Hot Cold and Custard" album over here?: http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2008/11/peter-gordon-hot-cold-custard.html My guess is that you'd probably enjoy it.

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Can't download the mp3s or zip files? Baffled by the point of this blog? Please go to the FAQ first of all. Your answer should be there.

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"Left and to the Back" is a blog exploring the dark and dusty world of flop singles and albums, the kind you may find lingering near the stock room of your local second hand record store (if you still have one), or perhaps going for extortionate sums on ebay.

For a better idea about the kind of music featured, both sublime and ridiculous, please go to our Spotify playlist here. Please note that L&TTB is not primarily a sixties blog, even though a lot of good "lost" material was released around this era and will be featured. In short, if I like it and it's interesting, I'll upload it. And sometimes if I don't like it but it's interesting, it will also feature.

The music uploaded to this site is for evaluation only, and where it is otherwise available at a reasonable price I would persuade you to support your local second hand record store by buying it. Many of the posts on here are about digging around in these shops and being thrilled by ridiculous and obscure finds, and I hope I'm persuading a few more readers to get out there and dig around. So please do dig. Man. No blog or download site can ever be an effective substitute.